Aggregation, absorption and MMC, unlocking brownfield sites for affordable homes

This blog is our summary and key takeaways from  Session 9 from the New Homes in New Ways Summit, hosted by HTA Design LLP. Watch the Summit on our YouTube channel.

This panel was chaired by Mike De’Ath, partner at HTA Design LLP, and included Joanne Drew, Strategic Director of Housing and Regeneration at London Borough of Enfield, Cllr. Kieron Williams, Leader of Southwark Council, Stuart Marshall, Head of UK and Global Sales at Elements Europe, and Deborah Heenan, Chief Executive Officer of Populo Living. 

Mike opened the conversation by asking the panellists, “What does good collaboration look like for you? What is needed to make collaboration in housing delivery work?”

Stuart offered the first answer, commenting that in his 20 years in the MMC sector he’s seen all the market failures and non-delivery of MMC, and yet still believes it offers a crucial opportunity. Whats needed, he said, is a pipeline and volume, and this requires standardisation. Standardisation doesn’t have to be bland, it just has to be something everyone agrees to. He pointed out that in the early days, every MMC supplier wanted to have a unique product, but this meant there was no volume, and the opportunities were limited to small sites. Elements are a manufacturing unit that can produce 1000 homes a year, and therefore looking for more volume.

Joanne added that London Borough of Enfield are committed to building new homes and have teams equipped to do so. She also mentioned a number of failures in collaborative efforts, but did suggest that this was at least in part due to economic conditions that affected delivery. She added that collaboration is not just about thinking about vehicles and structures but how we can all work and learn together. It’s also about getting upstream and creating government conditions to support and incentivise local authorities in this area. She added that there are things local authorities can do, like working collaboratively with the marketplace. She referenced the North London Boroughs buyers club that created a high quality pattern book, but just couldn’t get the schemes together as a club to go to the market with an offer. She said this was partly due to local government governance that has strict rules around procurement and contracting, and therefore requires high confidence in the supply chain and quick routes to delivery, but that enable every local authority to operate as a sovereign borough. She concluded that innovation is currently risky for local authorities, but they’re still interested in solutions.

Deborah agreed that if we’re going to deliver homes quickly and drive down the cost, the only solution is standardisation, making the point that this has been the case in every other manufacturing-based industry. 

Kieron commented on why this is so important, why it’s been so hard, and why he’s optimistic about the future. It’s important because one in 21 children are living in Temporary Accommodation. In his borough, there are 18000 households on the social housing waiting list. The UK needs over 4 million homes to meet the need, which is a huge gap to fill. In his opinion, what is behind it is a lack of certainty, particularly in the last decade where we’ve seen funding for affordable housing cut back, social landlords, councils and housing associations have quite rightly had to move from thinking about new homes to investing in existing homes ot meet higher standards post Grenfell. The result, according to Kieron, is that trying to buy into a contract with a provider who wants a steady stream of 2000 homes a year on a particular model just doesn’t work for everyone.

Kieron was however optimistic because the national debate has suddenly surged forward, and the government is making big commitments to housing delivery, which will bring a more certain season. He encouraged us all to grab hold of this moment in time. He also referenced work he had done to bring together a coalition of 107 councils to put council housing back on a firm footing - this was only possible because we’re all facing the same challenges, and there is an energy for change.

Mike agreed that now is the time to lean into the environment the government has created, saying he’s never before seen every secretary of state talking about housing. They have built their whole electoral future success on delivery 1.5m homes. This should galvanise us. He added that in July we will have a long term housing strategy and a comprehensive spending review, and an industrial straretgy that mentions housing. These things are very improtant for the psyche of the country and for all of us that are tasked with delivering these homes. If we don’t grab this opportunity, we will miss it for the next generation. He then asked “what’s stopping us use this energy to do things differently?

Jo spoke to some interesting work between London councils, MCHLG and the GLA trying to work out what it will take to deliver the increased pace required. She said it comes down to:

• The end to end planning process must be twice as quick as it is

• There must be four times as many planning applications in the planning system than there currently are

• Construction times must be 1.3 times quicker

• This must all be in place by 2027

The target therefore gives us a catalyst to look different, but she said this will mean fundamental system change. She added that the MMC solution certainly plays into the need as part of the system to get more rapid construction times. That said, viability is the issue. We need good prices on MMC so we can commit and be certain. There are challenges, but there are lots of opportunities at the moment to think differently, and all parts of the system need to come together to make that work. 

Kieron ended by saying that the government has set a ‘moon shot’ target, but now it’s up to all of us what we do with it. The time is now!